Yoga Could Ease Symptoms, Boost Quality Of Life For People With Atrial Fibrillation

Downward dog could have a real benefit for people with irregular heartbeats, according to a small new study.

Researchers from the University of Kansas Hospital and Medical Center found that yoga seems to improve symptoms and quality of life for people with atrial fibrillation. The findings are published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Atrial fibrillation occurs when the heart doesn't beat as it's supposed to -- potentially leading to symptoms of weakness, shortness of breath, confusion, chest pains and heart palpitations, according to the Mayo Clinic. The condition itself isn't usually fatal, but can lead to complications including stroke and heart failure.

The new study included 52 people with occasional atrial fibrillation (called paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, meaning it's not a chronic condition and the heart doesn't always beat abnormally) who underwent standard medical treatment for their heart condition for three months, and then participated in a yoga practice (an hour of yoga twice a week, at least) for the following three months. Forty-nine people completed the study.

Over the whole study period, the study participants were asked to record their symptoms. Researchers also examined depression and anxiety of the participants at the start and end of the study.

Results showed that the number of symptomatic episodes experienced by the study participants was less when they were undergoing the yoga practice, compared with when they were just receiving standard treatment. Plus, they experienced improved quality of life and lower depression and anxiety scores at the end of the yoga practice period, compared with at the beginning of the study.

For more ways yoga can help the heart, click over to HuffPost blogger Elaine Gavalas's piece here.

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Mindfulness meditation could help doctors provide better care to their patients, University of Rochester Medical Center researchers found.
When doctors underwent mindfulness meditation training, they listened better and were less judgmental at home and at work, according to the Academic Medicine study.

Practicing mindfulness meditation exercises could help people with the painful condition to decrease their stress and fatigue levels, according to a study from Oslo's Diakonhjemmet Hospital.
In that study, published in the journal Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, the goal of the mindfulness meditation exercises was to help people concentrate on their own thoughts, experiences and pain in the moment, without actively trying to avoid them or judge them. The researchers found that people who did the exercises had lower stress and fatigue measurements than people who didn't partake in the meditation.

Practicing mindfulness meditation could help decrease feelings of loneliness in the elderly. The small study, published in the journal Brain, Behavior & Immunity, showed that undergoing an eight-week mindfulness meditation training program, as well as doing meditation exercises at home, was linked with lower feelings of loneliness and a reduction in the expression of genes known to be linked with inflammation.
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Practicing yoga for eight weeks helped stroke survivors to improve their balance in a study published in the journal Stroke.
Improving balance among stroke patients is important for reducing the risk of falls. People who had balance problems, or feelings of dizziness and/or spinning, were five times more likely to fall than those without balance issues, according to an earlier 2003 study in Stroke.
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Meditation could be the key to minimizing stress for busy teachers, according to a study from researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
The findings, published in the journal Emotion, showed that undergoing eight weeks of meditation helped to lower anxiety and depression, also, in the teachers, Everyday Health reported.